D&D 5E Princes of the Apocalypse campaign recaps

[Nebulous]

Indeed, perhaps Rothgar really did turn into a silver dragon, but the effect was unstable. After a time, he felt himself start to 'flicker' in and out of dragon form. He returned to the party just in time as he popped back completely and finally into Rothgar form. It's definitely not an experiment to be repeated; there's no telling what kind of weirdness might result.

Yes, Harzel and Dragonbait, good ideas, I can say it was a magical fluke of some kind, but I will still need to let the PCs escape and sort of fudge it, and let them come back later. Having the dragon affected all of their strategies and they would have done things differently if it wasn't there. What they are most happy about is that the goddamn naga is dead, that thing had been hounding them since the Temple above and had escaped maybe 6 times so far. I'm going to keep it dead, but the aftermath is that there's a legendary Aboleth replacing it now

 

[Nebulous]

Session #57 - Assault on Shatterkeel, Part 3 (A.K.A. - "Sick of the Water Node")

https://app.box.com/s/9oh11dr1tcsbtphh5yxrmju7ocq4j64i

 

[Nebulous]

Session #58 - The Death of Gar Shatterkeel

https://app.box.com/s/ltyppymazchf17p22jbygyocb92eepd1

 

[Nebulous]

Session #59 - Serena & The Book of the Exalted

https://app.box.com/s/895eola6gtax5u81dvu1hm0rf98501u5

 

[Nebulous]

First off, I want to thank everyone who had been reading and commenting on this thread for the past year and a half. This campaign is taking a long time, but we're loving it. The ONLY slow part for us collectively so far was the slog through the Water Node. I added a few too many enemies, but I also played them smart, hit and run and hide constantly, and it dragged the sessions down too much. Until right at the end when they attacked en force. When Shatterkeel finally died and gave up his trident.

Now, the PCs are teleporting to Yartar for reinforcements, and I am adapting the original Yartar chapter from the campaign but massively modifying it to fit the current circumstances of our campaign. I'm putting some notes here just to clarify it in my own head, and to share the thought process with any DMs who are reading.

 

[Nebulous]

A long time ago in my campaign, the town of Beliard was destroyed while the PCs were in it, by a super devastation orb, an item I introduced into the campaign. It's a combination of all 4 elements, and the PCs had clues from a map that only 2 existed. The first one was planted by the Fire cult in Beliard. They later learned from Windharrow, an ex-Zhent agent and current second hand man to Queen Aerisi of the Air cult, that the second superorb was to be auctioned off in Yartar. Sometime after that, I don't recall when exactly, another NPC told them that the Kraken Society had won the bid and owned the orb. I think the PCs tried to use clerical magic to divine the destination of the superorb, but were uncertain of its accuracy. That more or less ended their interest in Yartar and they continued on to fight the cultists.

 

[Nebulous]

Fast forward 6 months in real time, and the PCs now have a teleport scroll with a circle keyed to somewhere in Yartar, and they have loot to unload, GOLD TO SPEND, and allies and reinforcements to procure. Henchmen and hirelings I believe is their goal, and they have the funds to do, gold and gems and precious wondrous items.

So, what I'm doing is taking the original Yartar chapter, which featured a single elemental orb being auctioned off, and continuing with the prior plot thread that the Kraken Society actually won the bid and paid the Hand of Yartar Thieves Guild 30,000 gold pieces to acquire the super devastaion orb for their own nefarious purposes. At the time, the other bidders were the Zhentarim and the Red Wizards of Thay.

The auction was done, the Krakens took the orb and left.

But, in a world of backstabbing thieves and assassins, it didn't go as the Krakens planned. The Zhentarim attacked them after leaving Yartar, disguising themselves as HARPER AGENTS, with stolen insignias and pins, using the names of known Harper Lords and allies, trying to thrust the blame on the Harpers and hide the fact that this was really a Zhentarim theft.

The battle was horrible, many died on both sides, but the Zhent's managed to acquire the orb and flee back to Yartar and their hiding place three levels under the sewers level of Yartar. A deep black dark place, well fortified.

 

[Nebulous]

In game time, this theft by the Zhentarim was within one month of the PCs current circumstances in the Water Node. In the weeks or months since the theft, the Zhentarim have hidden the orb again, but they're trapped in Yartar for several reasons.

Here are the main reason: The superorb cannot pass through the ethereal or astral plane and cannot be teleported. It cannot be scryed upon, and it cannot be detected by another magic, being essentially a neutral device. The only way to get this surprising HEAVY item is by cart, or some other powerful manual labor or device.

Well, the Zhentarim, whom the old NPC WINDHARROW is now a part of, someone the PCs have not seen since Session 16, is now back in cahoots with the Zhents after defecting from the Air Cult after he realized that bringing the Princes into the world was actually really bad, and would possibly bring the ONE EYE, whatever that entity truly is, and that would probably destroy Toril, the whole damn planet.

 

[Nebulous]

The OTHER reasons that the orb is still in Yartar, is this, and this is the ****storm the PCs are about the teleport into:

Faction War in Yartar.


The Zhents are hunkered down under the sewers with the orb. They tried twice to send decoy
orbs out, the first through the canal, but something HORRIBLE in the canal slaughtered them
and overturned the boat. Another time they tried a decoy wagon through the south gates,
but fireball spells annihilated the wagon and hired drivers.

The Kraken Society, the Sons of the Kraken, are PISSED, and still unsure if it was the Harpers
or someone else. They are outside Yartar, and are employing DEEP SCIONS from the Volo
bestiary who can shapechange and infiltrate other factions. Even worse, a krakenspawn has
just made its lair in the canal, poisoning the water, using the stats of an undead aboleth
nihilith.

The Thayan Red Wizards are in a tower, maybe one of specialist of each the schools, and they're
employing banderlogs, invisible stalkers and gem-controlled SLAADI to shapechange and infiltrate
rival factions, all searching for the super devastation orb.

The Hand of Yartar Guild has their 30,000 gp, but suspicions think they betrayed the
deal and stole the orb back. They have their own spies, thieves and assassins all over the
city now.

As for the Good Guys, small regiments of the Lord's Alliance, The Emerald Enclave and
The Harpers have unified in an attempt to make sure the superorb doesn't fall into the
wrong hands. More interesting is that among this alliance, the party actually has met
five of these NPCs before, including old allies from Red Larch, Leelya and Sir Rel.

So, that's the setup I have in Yartar, a cluster**** of chaos about to happen, and the PCs
are thrust in the middle, and I don't know what the hell is going to happen next.

 

[HalfOrc HalfBiscuit]

First off, I want to thank everyone who had been reading and commenting on this thread for the past year and a half. This campaign is taking a long time, but we're loving it. The ONLY slow part for us collectively so far was the slog through the Water Node. I added a few too many enemies, but I also played them smart, hit and run and hide constantly, and it dragged the sessions down too much. Until right at the end when they attacked en force. When Shatterkeel finally died and gave up his trident.

Now, the PCs are teleporting to Yartar for reinforcements, and I am adapting the original Yartar chapter from the campaign but massively modifying it to fit the current circumstances of our campaign. I'm putting some notes here just to clarify it in my own head, and to share the thought process with any DMs who are reading.

Well in return I'd like very much to thank you for posting these recaps. This thread has been instrumental in me deciding to run PotA and in giving me ideas to change it or flesh it out. It's my first serious DMing for quite a number of years, so reading about other people's experiences with the same module has been most inspirational.

My PCs haven't got very far yet - they've only just hit second level and are about to discover the Tomb of Moving Stones. One of the things I've tried to do is link the introductory adventures into the main plot a bit better. I started with the PCs themselves in that one (a bard) is searching for her old mentor who herself has disappeared while trying to trace another former student (who is in fact Windharrow), she's accompanied by a fighter who is a former resident of Red Larch (indeed his family still have a farm there) and they've met up with two wood elves, one of whom (a druid) is already affiliated to the Emerald enclave (the other, a ranger, is along because she doesn't believe the druid can be trusted to look after himself). they all came up the road from Amphail, so I stuck some dead bodies bearing the Black Earth sigil at the turn off to Rundreth Manor (likewise the bandits in Bears and bows had some coin purses bearing the sigil of the Crushing Wave). I've also tried to play up the weird weather (warm winds from the north? in autumn?) and thrown in the occasional earth tremor as well.

I'm looking forward to seeing how it all plays out.